Reinventing Styrofoam

Oct 30, 2009

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Every year there are at least 2.3 million tons of polystyrene (in the form of Styrofoam cups, plates, packing film and CD jewel cases, to name a few) dumped into the nation's landfills, in large part because the petroleum-based plastic waste is difficult to recycle. A study to be published in April's American Chemical Society journal, Environmental Science & Technology, demonstrates that this may no longer need to be the case.

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The study's authors investigate turning Styrofoam into a biodegradable form through pyrolysis, a process that involves heating polystyrene in the absence of oxygen to convert it into styrene oil. The soil bacterium Pseudomonas putida then feed on the oil, converting it to PHA (polyhydroxyalkanoates)—a biodegradable plastic that can be used to manufacture medicines, plasticware and other disposable items.

Like polystyrene, PHA is resistant to hot liquids and oils and has a long shelf life. Unlike it, PHA breaks down readily in soil, water, septic systems and backyard compost. Once these biodegradable items become available to consumers, the next step will be training ourselves not to seal them up tightly in a plastic bag and put them out on the curb.—Adam Raymond